


Straight Up Just a She's All That AU

by d2fmeasurement



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:20:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d2fmeasurement/pseuds/d2fmeasurement
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian is gonna 'She's All That' Dinesh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Aly and Brian were kicking back beers at TechCrunch, trying to drown the twinge of guilt at knowing that Nucleus was stolen badly from Richard Hendricks. But, whatever, it was his fault for having the hubris to turn down that much money from Gavin.

  
“There are so many hot girls here tonight,” Aly said. “I am definitely going to get laid.” He looked at Brian sympathetically and said, “And yet the guys are still all, uh... less than ideal.”

  
“Eh, it’s not that bad a crop,” Brian said. “The key is being able to look past how awkward and terribly dressed a guy is and turn him into a ten.”

  
Aly took another look at the crowd of nerds and then raised an eyebrow at Brian.

  
“Okay, a Silicon Valley ten,” he said. “I do it all the time. Michael was a total train wreck when I first met him.”

  
“What? No. He was cool,” Aly said, shaking his head and not believing Brian’s shit for a minute.

  
“I started off only sleeping with him in secret because it was honestly embarrassing. And then I’d work in like, ‘hey, it’d be fun to go to the gym’ or like ‘I have an idea, let’s go clothes shopping.’ And then eventually he became the person I actually introduced to you.”

  
“You’re exaggerating,” Aly said, rolling his eyes.

  
“Pick any one of these seemingly hopeless guys. I will show you,” Brian said.

  
Aly looked around. There were so many sad, sad men to choose from. As he was trying to pick someone, he overheard the most pathetic sentence he’d ever heard:  
“Seriously, though, this code made me want to snuggle her brain all night, y’know?”

  
Aly turned to look and laughed out loud. He turned back to Brian and said, “The one in the worst striped polo shirt I’ve ever seen.”

  
Brian followed his eye line. “Fine,” he said. “Memorize that ‘before’ because you won’t recognize the ‘after.’”

  
He walked over to Dinesh and asked, “Hey, can I buy you a drink?”

  
Dinesh looked up and stared at him. “Why does everyone think I’m gay today?”

  
  Brian had been prepared for a lot of responses, but that one really threw him off. “Uh. That’s a big problem for you today?”

  
“Yeah, I-- sorry. I don’t want to get into it...”

  
“You don’t want to get into it?” Erlich repeated. “Because you’ve been talking about this all night and I’ve told you repeatedly that I don’t give a shit.”

  
“I’ll listen to you talk about it,” Brian offered.

  
Dinesh was surprised but followed Brian to the bar. Brian looked back over his shoulder to wink at Aly.

  
“I’m kind of drunk,” Dinesh said. “And I’ve had a weird day. I promise I don’t normally talk to strangers like that. And, you know... I know there’s nothing wrong with being gay. I’m just not.”

 

Brian nodded encouragingly and said, “Yeah. Sure. So, why did someone think that?”

  
“Well, I feel in love with a girl based on this code she’d typed up,” Dinesh said.

  
“Sure, yeah,” Brian said agreeably.

  
“And it tuned out it was made by a guy.”

  
“Oh, that’s not gay. If anything it’s, like...sapiosexual,” he said.

  
“Thank you!” Dinesh said. “See, you’re reasonable. You understand.”

  
“Sure, I do,” he said. “I’m Brian.” He put out his hand.

  
“Dinesh,” he said as he shook it.

  
“So, you must be really smart,” Brian said.

  
Dinesh grinned and said, “I mean... yeah. I guess I am. It’s not a big deal.”

  
 Brian smiled at him affectionately.

  
“Um, what about you? You’re with the conference, so are you...”

  
“Oh, I’m a programmer, but I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve probably never written a code good enough to make you fall in love with me.”

  
“I fell in love with a guy based on his code one time! That’s not something I just go around doing,” Dinesh said. He shook his head and added, “And, I mean, I didn’t. I didn’t fall in love with him.”

  
“Right, of course,” Brian said. “Anyway, I’m okay, but not compared to a lot of the geniuses here.”

  
“That makes sense because when I saw you, I thought, ‘this guy is way too good-looking to be a coder,’” Dinesh told him.

  
Brian grinned. “Thank you,” he said.

  
After a second, Dinesh said, “Oh, I didn’t mean that like... I meant objectively. I’m sure you know you’re a good-looking guy. That’s not my opinion, it’s just... There are certain standards of handsomeness that exist in society. You know what I meant.”

  
“Sure, yeah,” Brian said. “But, um, if you didn’t mean it objectively... we are at a conference in a hotel. And your friends have already left the bar so they wouldn’t see you leave with me--” He pointed to the now abandoned table Dinesh had been sitting at. “-- and it’s sort of an ideal set up to have a one time thing with a guy you won’t have to see again.”

  
Dinesh looked over Brian, thinking about that. After a second, he said, “Yeah... Yeah. Let’s go.”

 

 

 

As Brian led Dinesh to his hotel room, Dinesh said, “Hey, I just want to clarify, just because I’m now about to... do gay stuff... with you, that doesn’t mean I’m gay for this guy who wrote this code. I mean, I’m into you because you’re normal and cool. He’s not...”

  
“Yeah, I get it,” Brian said, nodding. “If you were into him, you’d be with him right now.”

  
“Yes! Exactly!” Dinesh said. “Thank you.”

  
Brian gave him a reassuring smile as he entered his hotel room.

  
“Holy shit,” Dinesh said as he looked around the suite. “Do you have this place to yourself?”

  
“Uh, yeah,” Brian said.

  
“I thought you said you weren’t that great a coder,” Dinesh said, looking around the place.

  
“Hooli has pretty deep pockets,” Brian explained. “We all got suites like this.”

  
Dinesh stopped in his tracks and said, “Hooli? So, you’re on the Nucleus team?”

  
“Yeah,” Brian said, smirking proudly.

  
“That’s cool,” Dinesh said sarcastically. “What’s it like for your entire career to be a lie?”

  
Brian stared at him. “What?”

  
“I work for Pied Piper,” Dinesh told him.

  
Brian quickly said, “I’ve never heard of that company.”

  
Dinesh seemed to believe him and said, “Well, our founder invented the compression album that Hooli stole for Nucleus.”

  
“Maybe it was independent creation,” Brian said, ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach.

  
“It wasn’t. They know they stole it,” Dinesh told him.

  
“Wow, um... That’s horrible that anyone would do that.”

  
“Yeah,” Dinesh said. “So, you should really think about quitting and telling those people at Hooli to go fuck themselves.”

  
“Would you do that?” Brian asked. “Walk away from a salary and benefits and stock options?”

  
“Sure, I mean, there’s a reason I never got involved in that stuff in the first place,” Dinesh said. “I don’t love the whole having roommates well into my 30s thing, but I’m not going to be a part of some corrupt company that just steals people’s ideas.”

  
“Yeah. I get that. Maybe I’ll quit,” Jason said, totally lying. The sinking feeling in his stomach was worse than usual at Dinesh’s words but he kept ignoring it. He took his shoes off, sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to him.

  
Dinesh sat down and looked at him nervously.

  
“You can be honest with me,” he said. “You’ve really never done anything with a guy?”

  
Dinesh shook his head.

  
“Well, it’s great,” Brian assured him.

  
“Yeah?” Dinesh asked, leaning his head in a little.

  
“Oh yeah,” Brian said before giving Dinesh a quick kiss. He pulled away to gauge Dinesh’s reaction and Dinesh quickly leaned into continue the kiss.

  
“You’re so beautiful,” he said excitedly after they’d been kissing for a minute. "Er, handsome. Sorry.”

  
“It’s fine. You can call me beautiful,” Brian said.

  
“Good because you are,” Dinesh told him before lovingly kissing him again.

  
“You haven’t even seen all of me,” Brian teased.

  
“I’d like to,” Dinesh told him.

  
Jason stood up and pulled off everything except his underwear.

  
Dinesh ran his hand over Brian’s abs. “Do you... go to the gym?” he asked, perplexed.

  
“Yeah, every day,” Brian told him proudly.

  
“I didn’t think Silicon Valley had gyms,” Dinesh said.

  
Brian laughed. “You’re funny,” he told Dinesh before kissing him.

  
“Can you lie down with me and kiss me some more?” Dinesh asked. “But, leave your underwear on. I don’t know if I’m ready for that level of gay.”

  
“Sure,” Brian said, stretching out on the bed. “Are you gay enough to let a guy blow you?”

  
“What?” Dinesh asked.

  
“I think you heard me,” he said with a little smile.

  
“Yeah, I-- yes. I think-- yeah. I could be that gay. Yes. That-- yeah.”

  
 Brian grinned as he watched Dinesh scramble to take off his clothes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First date! Sex happens!

The next morning, Dinesh had to hurry off to work on Pied Piper’s TechCrunch presentation. To his surprise, Brian gave him his number when he asked for it.

  
For the next couple of weeks, Dinesh often thought about calling him but felt nervous. Mostly because he was worried it would turn out to be a fake number, but if he was being honest with himself, the idea of Brian actually picking up also scared him. Finally, one day he had a couple of wheat beers and then made the call.

  
“Brian Minter. Sup?”

  
Dinesh almost hung up at the knowledge that this was how Brian answered phone calls, but he decided that was maybe too nitpicky to be a dealbreaker.

  
“Hey, it’s Dinesh,” he said. “Uh, we met at TechCrunch. We had a drink together at the bar.”

  
Brian teasingly said, “Not sure I remember. What else did we do?” Dinesh laughed nervously. “Oh, wait, are you the Dinesh that was inside me?”

  
“Yup, that’s me,” Dinesh said, his heart racing a little.

  
“Yeah. I remember that. Sup?”

  
Dinesh cringed a little at Brian using ‘sup’ twice in the span of less than two minutes, but he reminded himself that this guy was both attractive and willing to have sex with him. “So, um, I was wondering if you’d like to go out sometime. Like on a date.”

  
“Yeah. Sounds great,” Brian said. “How about Friday?”

  
“Um, let me think,” Dinesh said, knowing that he was never busy. He counted to forty in his head and then said, “Yeah, I’m available on Friday.”

  
“Okay, I’ll text you my address and you can pick me up.”

  
“Great,” Dinesh said, before immediately adding, “I don’t know why I said ‘great.’ I don’t have a car.”

  
Brian laughed and said, “Alright. You text me your address.”

  
“Great,” Dinesh said. He hung up and then frowned as he thought about the idea of his roommates seeing him get in a car with another dude.

 

 

“So, I’m seeing the guy from TechCrunch again on Friday,” Brian told Aly as they worked out next to each other on side-by-side yoga balls.

  
“Ask him how Pied Piper got that Weissman score,” Aly said, scowling as he thought about what bad shape Nucleus was in.

  
“I’m not going to use some poor horny nerd to get tips for Nucleus,” Brian said.

  
“Why not? It’d make our lives easier, “ Aly said.

  
“How would I even get him to tell me that stuff?” Brian asked.

  
“Just act interested. These kinds of guys don’t think about the real world. I mean, Richie gave us that demo immediately.”

  
“That’s true,” Brian said. “I’ll consider working it in.”

  
“How was he, anyway? No details, please. Just… was he as bad at everything as I’m imagining?”

  
“No, he’ll clean up nice,” Brian assured him. “He was kind of hot once I got him out of that polo and those red pants.”

  
Aly cringed and said, “Jesus, I didn’t even notice the red pants.” He shook his head and then asked, “How many times did he bring up being sexually attracted to Java codes?”

  
“Um, a lot,” Brian said with a laugh.

  
Aly said, “You’ll have to work on your skills. This person whose code he’s hung up on could be competition.”

  
“No way. He’s probably just his straight best friend. All gay people are in love with their straight best friend.”

  
Aly raised an eyebrow at him.

  
Brian playfully shoved him and said, “Fuck you, dude. I meant, like, at first. You know, before they come out of the closet and meet people who’ll actually have sex with them.”

  
“Mmhmm,” Aly said, smirking playfully.

  
Brian kicked his yoga ball out from under him so he fell on the floor.

 

 

 

Dinesh had been hoping against hope that the guys would be in their rooms by the time Brian came around to pick him up, but everyone was in the living room. When he stepped into the room wearing a button-up shirt and sweater, Gilfoyle immediately narrowed his eyes at him. “What’s going on with you?”

  
“Just… heading out,” Dinesh said.

  
“You don’t go out,” Gilfoyle said, crossing his arms.

  
“I have a date,” Dinesh said. “With someone really attractive and cool, so…” Dinesh crossed his arms over his chest.

  
“None of that is true. If your mom is visiting, you can just tell us that,” Gilfoyle said.

  
“Hey, come on,” Richard said. “Dinesh, man, that’s great. Good for you.”

  
Dinesh gave Richard a nod to thank him for the support, then looked down at his phone to see if Brian had sent him an ‘I’m here’ text. To his horror, instead of a text, there was a knock on the door. Dinesh stared at it.

  
“Are you… going to get that?” Richard asked him.

  
“Um,” Dinesh said. “It… it might not be for me.”

  
Jian Yang walked in and opened the door, then walked away bored when he saw that it wasn’t anyone he knew.

  
Richard sat up straight. “What the fuck are you doing here?” He asked.

  
“Richard?” Brian asked. He stared at Dinesh and asked, “You live with Richard?”

  
“You know Dinesh?” Richard asked.

  
Gilfoyle grinned. “Holy shit, is this your date?”

  
Dinesh had no idea how to address any of this, so he just said to Brian, “Uh, let’s get out of here.”

  
He hurried out the door and closed it behind him. “Fuck,” he said. He glared at Brian and said, “I thought you’d just roll up to the place and honk or something.”

  
“I’m actually part of polite society, so,” Brian said. “How could you not tell me that you live with all of your co-workers?”

  
“I don’t know I thought you’d be offended if I said I didn’t want my roommates seeing me get picked up by a guy. I totally forgot I had a good reason for not wanting my roommates to see you.” He frowned and looked at Brian suspiciously as he asked, “Richard really seems to hate you. Is there… something personal there…”

  
“No,” Brian said immediately. “It’s just, y’know, he hates everyone who works at Hooli.”

  
Dinesh nodded a little. Brian led him to his car and held the door open for him. “Uh, thank you,” he said as he got in.

  
As soon as Brian started the car, Dave Matthews Band started playing. “Ugh,” Dinesh said, turning the music off.

  
Brian raised an eyebrow and said, “You could politely ask me to change the music, you know.”

  
“Sorry. I’m just stressed out from getting increasingly worried that you’re the worst man alive.”

  
“You do remember that I’ve let you fuck me before and might let you do it again, right?” Brian asked.

  
“And I love those qualities of yours very very much,” Dinesh told him.

 

 

 

“God, that’s good,” Dinesh said after Brian fed him a piece of sushi.

  
“I know, right,” Brian said. “This is easily in my top three restaurants in the area. I come here all the time.”

  
Dinesh looked around the nice restaurant and asked, “You come here all the time?”

  
Brian smirked and said, “Hey, sweet tiny house, by the way. How many roommates were in there with you?”

  
“Yeah, well, the company I work for doesn’t steal people’s ideas, so…”

  
“It’s not a real company,” Brian said. “Don’t you want a real job with actual security?”

  
“Obviously, I don’t want to be poor, but that’s not my biggest priority,” Dinesh said. “I got into tech to actually make things and make great things. Not to reverse-engineer other people’s shit and get paid to make an inferior product.” Brian looked down at his lap and ate in silence for a minute. Despite knowing he was right, Dinesh felt a little guilty and said, “I’m sorry if I offended you. I didn’t realize that your career being built on fraud was something you were sensitive about emotionally.”

  
“I’m not really hurt,” Brian said. “It’s just surreal meeting people like you.”

  
“People like me?” Dinesh repeated.

  
“Yeah, just like… okay, the feeling I get when you talk about working on your own shit regardless of financial security, it makes me feel like I’m back in high school,” Brian said. “I was valedictorian and I remember when I had to write the speech, I just couldn’t do it. And it was like the first thing, ever, that I just totally couldn’t do. I had nothing to say except ‘hey, high school was fun. Go Wolves.’”

  
Dinesh cringed and said, “High school was fun for you? God, I hate you.”

  
Brian continued, “Anyway, so I told them I couldn’t do it and instead they opened it up for anyone to write a graduation speech and since I was valedictorian, I got to read the top picks and help choose one and it was so weird reading all of these speeches from people who hadn’t gotten a high GPA but did have actual ideas and thoughts about what they wanted to do in life. And it made me realize that I’d always thought I was this really smart guy, but I’m actually just really good at following directions. Which… is not as cool.” He shrugged a little.

  
Dinesh thought about that and said, “You know what I think it is?”

  
Brian smiled a little with amusement and said, “Sure, this is our second time hanging out. What’s your assessment of me?”

  
“I feel like society pumped out a perfect person with you.”

  
Brian laughed and said, “Okay, I’m interested, go on.”

  
“It’s like, you know, there’s this guy who’s smart, but not in the way where he challenges big corporations or anything. In fact, dedicating all his labor to the most successful corporation available is his ideal situation. And he’s good-looking but not like Ryan Gosling good-looking where it’s distracting. And he works out for fun and measures accomplishments with material possessions and is basically an all-around perfect American male.”

  
“You do remember I’m gay, right?” Brian asked. “That’s kind of still a thing in society.”

  
“Yeah, but you told me you thought high school was fun, so I feel like being gay for you was more like all the hottest girls in school fought over who’d take you to prom as friends and you’d tell them ‘ugh, I didn’t say I wanted to go to prom with any of you. I wish Will & Grace never happened.’”

  
Brian laughed and said, “That was pretty much what it was like. I did get beat up in the locker room and ended up in the hospital once, though.”

  
“Oh. Well, now I feel like an asshole,” Dinesh said.

  
Brian smiled and said, “That was pretty much my goal.”

  
Dinesh shrugged it off and said, “Well, I’m gay and not white, so that’s two things to your one.”

  
Brian tilted his head and said, “I’ve never heard you admit to being gay out loud before. Even after we fucked.”

  
“Yeah, I guess, uh… that was the first time,” Dinesh said, surprised at himself.

  
“So, you admitted to yourself that you’re gay for the first time so you could one-up me?”

  
“Yeah, pretty much,” Dinesh said.

  
“I can respect that,” Brian said. He waved for the check. When it arrived, he didn’t reach for it for a second.

  
Dinesh frowned and asked, “Did you want me to…”

  
Brian laughed and said, “I’m totally fucking with you, I got it.”

  
“You know, if your idea of fucking with me is just buying me a lot of expensive meals, don’t you think I kind of win?” Dinesh asked.

  
“No, I think it’s really getting to your sense of pride,” Brian said as he put his credit card in the check. “But, if that sounded convincing to you, that’s all that matters.”

  
Dinesh watched him, feeling annoyed by how turned on he was by this smug asshole.

 

 

 

“You want to go back to my place?” Brian asked as he drove. He smirked and said, “Or we could go to yours and you can loudly scream my name all night with Richard in the next room.”

  
Dinesh frowned and said, “Don’t talk about Richard. I actually feel kind of guilty.” He quickly added, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely going to keep fucking you for as long as you’ll let me, but I do feel bad.”

  
“I really never did anything bad to Richard,” Brian said, mostly believing that to be true.

  
“Yeah, he’s kind of stubborn about his principles,” Dinesh acknowledged. “But, he’s like the one person in my friend group who wouldn’t give me shit about having a boyfriend, except for the fact that it’s you. So, that kind of sucks.” He noticed Jason’s expression and asked, “What?”

  
“Boyfriend?” Brian repeated.

  
“I mean, eventually. If we ever… I just meant guy I’m fucking in general.”

  
“Okay,” Brian said agreeably as he pulled into his driveway.

 

 

“Fuck you,” Dinesh said as he walked through the house.

  
Brian laughed and said, “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.”

  
“You are just the worst,” Dinesh said.

  
“I feel like you don’t have a great hang on the whole trying-to-fuck-someone thing yet,” Brian told him.

  
“I’m already here, I feel like you’re more likely to operate based on convenience than charm at this point,” he said.

  
Brian took out his phone and said, “Let’s see how long it takes me to find someone on Grindr. Oh, hey, there’s a guy two blocks away--”

  
“No, hey. Don’t do that,” Dinesh said, walking over to him and putting his hands on him. “Have I told you today how beautiful you are?”

  
“You did but it was part of that weird speech where you said I was no Ryan Gosling,” Brian reminded him.

  
“Well, you know you’re not Ryan Gosling so…” Dinesh murmured. He looked at Brian seriously and said, “Please have sex with me.” When Brian didn’t respond right away, he added, “That’s kind of the only move I have, so if that didn’t work, I don’t know what to tell you.”

  
Brian laughed and started kissing him. Dinesh kissed back for a while, but then looked at Brian and frowned.

  
“What’s wrong, babe?” Brian asked.

  
“Why are you with me?”

  
Brian laughed and asked, “Why didn’t you ask me that the first time we hooked up?”

  
“I think anything can happen once as an anomaly. You run into Claudia Schiffer, she’s bored, stuff happens.”

  
“Okay, first off, as a side note, if you want to pass for straight you might want to update your reference point for a beautiful female celebrity,” Brian said. “More importantly, is it that weird that I’d like you?”

  
“Kind of. Are there no gay bros in Palo Alto that you can, you know, toss around a football with and then bang it out? Why are you going after an awkward coder?”

  
“I’m a coder too,” Brian reminded him.

  
“You know what I mean,” Dinesh said.

  
“I’m not sure I do…”

  
“Are you… do you have some weird thing about going after awkward guys who’ll be grateful you’re so out of their league or something? Because I know I seem pretty desperate, but I’m not going to be with someone who’s secretly laughing at me or something.”

  
“Hey, come on, that’s ridiculous,” Brian said. “Why would anyone do that?”

  
“Then why are you into me?”

  
“Okay, at first, it was because there wasn’t that much talent at the bar and you were just there,” Brian said. “But, after getting to know you…” He rolled his eyes and said, “Don’t let this go to your head, but, come on, of course I’m into you. You’re smarter than me and you’re a better person than me.” Brian watched nervously to see if Dinesh would believe that bullshit.

  
Dinesh nodded and said, “Those points are both very true.”

  
Brian laughed and said, “You’re also kind of an asshole, which I am actually into.”

  
Dinesh smiled and said, “I feel the same way about you.” He kissed Brian, then pulled away and said, “The asshole part. Not the being smarter and a better person than me, obviously.”

  
“I got it,” Brian assured him. “Let’s go up to my bedroom.”

 

As Brian pulled off his shirt, he said, “You know, I’m usually a top. I just made an exception with you last time because you were so nervous about it being your first time and uptight about not really being gay.”  
“So, if you were able to make that exception once, it wouldn’t be too big a deal to do it again,” Dinesh said.

  
“Counterpoint: I’d like to fuck you.”

  
“I’m not going to let you do that,” Dinesh told him.

  
“Is this another hang up about your masculinity thing?”

  
Dinesh ran his hands down Brian’s back and then rested them on his ass. “No, it’s an I-know-what-I-want thing.”

  
Brian pushed Dinesh onto the bed and pinned his hands over his head. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  
Dinesh let out an excited gasp. He’d always wanted to be sexually dominated, but something about Jason really brought out his competitive side and he was willing to put aside his longterm fantasy in favor of winning this argument. He put on his best poker face and said, “What I want is for you to let go of me so I can fuck you in the ass.”

  
Brian looked at him skeptically, but said, “My mistake.” He let go of Dinesh.

  
Dinesh tried to pin Brian down, but Brian didn’t let him. Dinesh scowled at how much stronger than him Brian actually was. He knew he had to do something about Brian’s smug smirk.

  
He put a hand under Brian’s chin and calmly said, “I thought you were supposed to be good at following directions.” He ran his hand down Brian’s neck and said, “If one of us is going to be in charge, don’t you think it should be the one capable of individual thought?”

  
After a moment of sheer surprise, Brian looked impressed. He laid down and put his hands over his head. Dinesh grinned and pulled off Brian’s pants and underwear. “God, you look hot like that.”

  
“Thanks,” Brian said, smiling up at Dinesh.

  
“Where do you keep your condoms and lube?” Dinesh asked.

  
“I’m not going to help you after you insulted me into submission,” Brian said. “And the clock is ticking before the effects of that move wear off.”

  
Dinesh felt panicked for a moment before he noticed the bedside table. He popped the drawer open and smiled when he saw the condoms and lube inside. “Wow, the most obvious place. Shocker.”

  
He undressed, then put the condom on. He grabbed Brian’s ankles and pulled his legs up around Dinesh’s waist, then started lubing up Brian’s asshole. “God, you’re so attractive,” he said, sounding a little mad about it.  
He moaned as he pushed into Brian. He was aware of how sloppy and clumsy he’d been at this the first time, so he knew he had to bring it. He rubbed Brian’s cock and pushed deep into him. Brian moaned and arched his back. “That feels good,” he said, sounding surprised.

  
Dinesh started fucking him harder and said, “You’re such an asshole.”

  
When Brian moaned especially loudly, Dinesh smiled and asked, “You like that?” He started fucking him faster and hitting the same spot. He jerked him off at the same time.

  
“Say that stuff you said before,” Dinesh said breathily.

  
“Which stuff?” Brian asked.

  
Dinesh abruptly stopped jerking him off and said, “You know what stuff.”

  
Brian gasped and said, “Oh my God. Fuck you.” He let out a breath and said, “You’re smarter than me and a better person than me.”

  
Dinesh grinned and started jerking him off again. “Now say Pied Piper is better than Nucleus.”

  
“Pied Piper is better than Nucleus,” Brian said immediately since that was pretty much an indisputable fact. He added, “It’s a shitty name, though.”

  
“I know,” Dinesh said as he pushed deep into Brian and came. He kissed Brian hard as he felt him come.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richard tells Dinesh more about Brian. There's drama.

Dinesh woke up alone. He saw had had a text from Brian that said “went 4 a jog.” He wasn’t sure if he was angrier that Brian woke up early to jog or that he used the number 4 instead of the word.

  
He took a shower and felt equal parts annoyed and delighted by how nice Brian’s shower was. He was enjoying the back massage setting when Brian walked in and smiled at him. “Hey, babe,” he said. He pulled off his sweaty clothes and got in the shower with Dinesh, who stared at his body. Brian said, “I have to say, I’m kind of into how you always stare at me like that. I should take guy’s virginity more often.”

  
Dinesh cringed a little, feeling weird about hearing that term applied to him.

  
“I know you weren’t like a full virgin, obviously you’d had sex with girls before,” Brian said.

  
“Oh. Yeah. Obviously,” Dinesh said.

  
Brian raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you’d never… ever?”

  
“I got close a bunch,” Dinesh said defensively. “What do you want me to say? I was in the closet. I wasn’t going to go after what I really wanted and I wasn’t going to… make myself do something I didn’t really want to do either. I was in enough denial to desperately chase after women but not quite enough to actually do anything when I did get the chance.” He sighed.

  
Brian stepped closer to him and said, “Hey, now that’s all over with. You know, you’re no longer in that awkward phase where you have to feel weird about being inexperienced or worry that you’ll be bad at it.” He bit his lip and said, “I mean, you definitely don’t have to worry that you’re bad at it.”

  
Dinesh grinned.

  
“So, there’s still so much stuff you haven’t done, huh? Like you’ve never fucked anyone in a shower?”

  
Dinesh swallowed and shook his head.

  
“Go grab a condom,” Brian said. “I’m gonna adjust the showerhead.”

  
“Adjust the showerhead?” Dinesh repeated. “What for?”

  
“You’re going to love this. I promise,” Brian told him.

 

 

 

As Brian dried off afterwards, he said, “You can grab a toothbrush from under the sink to use.”

  
Dinesh looked under the sink and frowned at the boxes of toothbrush. As he opened one, he asked, “So, you just have these for guests? That’s kind of…”

  
“Would you rather not brush your teeth? That’s disgusting.”

  
As Dinesh wetted the toothbrush and put paste on it, he said, “It just makes me a little curious about, you know… how often you do this.”

  
Brian shrugged and said, “It varies. This week you’re, um… the third guy I’ve had over.”

  
Dinesh stared at him.

  
Brian shrugged a little and went to go get dressed.

  
“Don’t get dressed yet,” Dinesh said.

  
“You want me to just stand here?” Brian asked as he dropped his towel.

  
Dinesh thought about it and then said, “Put your elbows on the table next to the sink so I can look at your ass.”

  
Brian grinned as he obeyed.

  
Dinesh happily admired Brian as he brushed his teeth.

 

 

As they got dressed, Brian asked, “Want to go to my favorite brunch spot?”

  
Dinesh definitely wasn’t looking forward to going home and facing the guys, so he said, “Sure.”

  
He frowned when he saw Brian take out sweatpants and an Under Armour shirt.

  
“That’s what you’re going to wear to brunch?” he asked.

  
“Uh, yeah,” Brian said, raising an eyebrow.

  
“I mean, we get it, you work out,” he said. “No one wants to see you dress like that in a casual setting.”

  
Brian crossed his arms and laughed, feeling a weird mixture of amused and shocked. “You’re seriously telling me how to dress right now?”

  
“You’re so hot, I’d just like to see you at your full hotness.”

  
Brian was kind of impressed at how quickly Dinesh could go from disbelief that Brian would touch him to telling him what to do, so he opened all his dresser drawers and said, “Fine. Pick anything you want.”

  
Dinesh examined the options then handed him slacks and a blue button-up. As Brian got dressed, he said, “You know, you walk around in red pants and a purple and brown rugby shirt.”

  
“Yeah, exactly, I put effort into how I dress,” Dinesh said.

  
Brian was too stunned to argue and said, “Alright, dude, let’s go to brunch.”

 

 

Dinesh smiled at the plate of huevos rancheros in front of him, which looked incredible. He had to admit Brian’s taste was much better than he’d expected. But, he frowned when he saw Brian taking out his phone.  
“Oh my God, you’re not going to Instagram your brunch, are you?” he asked, horrified.

  
“Yeah. You don’t ‘gram your brunches?” Brian asked.

  
Dinesh stared at him. “Are you really this comfortable being a complete cliche?”

  
“Right, because there’s nothing cliche about the snobby nerd who shits on every trend,” Brian said with a laugh.

  
Dinesh scowled.

  
As he ate, he tried to think of typical date talk. “Where are you from?” he asked.

  
“Hillsborough,” he said.

  
“You’re from 21 miles from here?”

  
“Uh, yeah, I grew up in Hillsborough and then I went to Stanford and now I live here.”

  
“But, you’ve… please tell me you’ve left California at some point in your life.”

  
“Yeah, as soon as I earned my first paid vacation, I went to Maui and it was so perfect I’ve gone back there four times now.”

  
“So, to recap, you’ve lived in a small area in California your entire life and then as soon as you took your first vacation you were like ‘this is it, this is the one place I’ll ever vacation to’?”

  
Brian pouted and asked, “Are you going to make fun of me?”

  
“I want to, but that’s exactly the kind of thing I would do,” he said. “I hate new things. I really do.”

  
“You know what I hate? Is when waiters make fun of you for getting the same thing every day.”

  
“Oh, I know! Sorry I’m not going to take a shot in the dark after I’ve found something that works for me,” Dinesh said.

  
“I hate when you suggest a great itinerary and someone says ‘let’s try something new.’ And they don’t even know what they want, they just act like anything new is better than your amazing plan of stuff you know you like,” Brian said.

  
“I hate when people give you no notice to do something and then act like you’re the weird one for saying, ‘no, I had my whole evening laid out in my mind,” Dinesh said.

  
“I hate when people act like it’s weird to schedule your night around a TV show. Yeah, I know DVRs exist, but that’s not the point.”

  
“Yeah, if a new episode of Game of Thrones is airing, I don’t want to know that other people are watching it and I’m missing it.”

  
“Exactly!” Brian said, grinning. “God, it’s so cool you get stuff like that.”

  
Dinesh smiled, feeling weird about the fluttering in his chest. “Yeah, it’s cool.”

 

 

 

“Can you park a couple blocks from my place?” Dinesh asked. “I want to make out with you a little when you drop me off, but not if my roommates could be watching.”

  
“Great, because that won’t feel totally high school,” Brian said, although he parked a couple blocks away just like Dinesh asked.

  
“Well, you peaked in high school, so you should love that,” Dinesh said.

  
“Okay, that’s an exaggeration,” Brian said.

  
“You were valedictorian,” Dinesh pointed out.

  
“You weren’t?”

  
“I had the best grades in my class, but I wasn’t also a jock,” Dinesh said.

  
“I wasn’t that much of a jock,” he said. “I only played football freshman year. Then I realized it’s hell if you’re gay and after that I only did track.”

  
“Hm,” Dinesh said, frowning. “That’s disappointing. If I’m going to be with a guy like you, I want to go all the way with it. So, let’s say you were quarterback of the varsity football team.”

  
He laughed and said, “Okay, babe.” He kissed Dinesh lovingly. “You know, I was also in a frat,” he said against Dinesh’s ear.

  
Dinesh groaned. “Seriously?” He asked, getting a little excited in a weird way.

  
“Mmhmm,” Brian said, kissing up his neck. “I was treasurer. I was known for doing keg stands.” He bit Dinesh’s ear and then whispered, “They were epic.”

  
Dinesh groaned and started kissing Jason aggressively.

  
After a few minutes, Brian said, “I hate to say it, but we can’t make out forever.”

  
“Yeah,” Dinesh said with a sigh.

  
“You’re scared to see your friends?” Brian asked.

  
“Yeah and…” Dinesh trialed off. “Yeah.”

  
“Is there something else?” Brian asked him.

  
Dinesh looked down at the floor and then said, “This is going to sound totally pathetic, but I’m scared that I’ll walk out of this car and you’ll never call me. That would kind of suck because… I like you.”  
Brian smiled and took out his phone. “I’m opening my calendar right now. When do you want our next date to be?”

  
“Friday?” Dinesh suggested.

  
“Same sushi restaurant?” Brian asked with a little smile.

  
Dinesh put his hand on Brian’s leg and playfully asked, “Same brunch spot the next morning?”

  
“I’m not putting that in the calendar because I still gotta make you work for it a little,” Brian told him.

  
Dinesh sighed and said, “That’s fair.” He gave Brian one last kiss before heading off to face the guys.

 

 

To his relief, Richard was the only guy in the living room. As terrified as he was to face him, the idea of seeing Gilfoyle or Erlich was even worse.

  
“Hey, Dinesh,” Richard said tensely. “Good morning.”

  
Dinesh sighed and said, “Look, I’m seeing a man. That’s a pretty huge deal. Can you please be happy for me?”

  
“I want to be,” Richard said. “That’s so great that you’re accepting who you are. But, why do you have to be with someone like that?”

  
“I know he works at Hooli, but he’s not that bad.”

  
“He’s engineering Nucleus! He’s stealing Pied Piper,” Richard said angrily.

  
“He didn’t even know what Pied Piper was.”

  
Richard’s jaw dropped. “That’s what he told you?”

  
“Yeah…” Dinesh said, furrowing his eyebrows.

  
“He lied to your face, Dinesh. He was the person who told everyone at Hooli about Pied Piper in the first place.”

  
Dinesh was shocked for a moment, but he said, “He probably, you know, thought he was doing you a favor, bringing it to Gavin Belson so he’d offer you all that money for it.”

  
“If it was so innocent and he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong, why would he lie to you?” Richard asked.

  
“Maybe just to avoid an awkward conversation--”

  
“Why are you defending him?” Richard asked.

  
“I’m not!” Dinesh said. He looked at Richard’s angry little muppet face and sighed. “I’m not. It sounds like he’s a real piece of shit.”

  
“Yeah, and by the way, he was also mean to me,” Richard said. “He’s kind of a bully.”

  
Dinesh frowned. “Okay,” he said. “Then that’s it. I won’t see him again.”

  
Richard knew how hard it was to meet people, so he sympathetically said, “I’m sorry. But, you deserve someone great and you’ll find someone way, way better than that douche.”  
“Yeah,” Dinesh nodded, although he didn’t believe that for a second.

 

 

 

Dinesh looked down at the text from Brian that said, “Confirming for tonight.” He knew he should tell him to go fuck himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  
“Dinesh, did you finish your module?” Jared asked gently.

  
“No, I, um, I haven’t quite finished,” Dinesh said.

  
“Can I speak to you privately?” Jared asked.

  
Dinesh was surprised but he led Jared to his room so they could talk.

  
“You’re distracted because of Brian Minter,” Jared said.

  
“It’s not a big deal,” Dinesh murmured. Even though he wanted to act cool and detached, he asked, “Did you know him?”

  
Jared nodded. "Interesting fact: his name is actually Jason Winter, but Gavin called him Brian Minter on his first day." 

  
"Huh," Dinesh said, furrowing his eyebrows. He softly said, “Richard said he’s a bully." 

  
“That’s not inaccurate,” Jared said.

  
Dinesh sighed. “And he said that he told everyone at Hooli about Pied Piper.”

  
Jared furrowed his eyebrows. “Well… I told everyone at Hooli about Pied Piper. I mean, I thought it would be a great opportunity for Richard. And it was.”

  
“Yeah, but the difference is you didn’t stick around and work on Nucleus,” Dinesh said.

  
“No, but… when I went to Richard to ask for a job at Pied PIper, I was terrified. It was hard to force myself to go out the door and turn my back on everything. I can easily imagine a world where I’d stayed and then… I could easily have been assigned to Nucleus.”

  
Dinesh nodded a little. “I get it and you get it, but…”

  
“Richard would never get it,” Jared filled in. “Bros before hos may apply here. The fact is, it would hurt him.”

  
Dinesh looked down at his feet. “Brian really liked me. I know it’s pathetic to be excited about that, but it meant a lot to me to have someone really like me.”

 

 

 

“Do you… really like this nerd?” Aly asked with an amused little smile as he sat next to Brian lifting weights.

  
“What? Ew. Of course not,” Brian said.

  
“Because you’re checking your phone a lot,” Aly said.

  
“I’d just be annoyed if I put in all this effort and didn’t even get to start to transform him into someone worthy of me,” Brian told him. “He wouldn’t really stop seeing me just because Richie has issues with me, would he?”  
“Doesn’t seem likely,” Aly said. “I mean, ‘bros before hos’ doesn’t really apply to people that desperate for hos. Besides, we were never that bad to Richie.”

  
“Yeah. He’ll text,” Brian said. “I’m not worried.”

  
“Hey, here’s an idea,” Aly said. “Instead of obsessing about a guy who wears red pants all night, come to the party Mike is having.”

  
Brian shoved his phone into his pocket and said, “Great idea. I’m in.”

 

 

 

At 2 a.m., Dinesh could no longer fight the urge to call Brian.

  
“Uh, hello?” Brian asked.

  
“Are you at a party?” Dinesh asked when he heard the John Mayer blasting.

  
“Yeah, you didn’t confirm our date so…” When Dinesh didn’t say anything, Brian asked, “Is there a reason you called?”

  
“I was sort of thinking of going to your house,” Dinesh said. “If you were going to be there.”

  
After a long pause, Brian said, “Yeah. I can meet you there.”

  
Dinesh snuck out of the house and took an Uber to Brian’s house. When Brian opened the door, they looked at each other for a while.  
Eventually, Dinesh said, “I don’t really want to talk.”

  
“Thank God. Come on,” Brian said before leading him up to his room.

  
They kissed aggressively as they pulled each other’s clothes off. As soon as they were naked, Brian started sucking Dinesh’s dick hard.

  
Dinesh moaned. “Holy shit,” he said, grabbing Jason’s hair. Brian bobbed his head hard. “God, that’s so good,” Dinesh said.

  
After a minute, he breathily said, “I want to fuck you.”

  
Brian flipped onto his back and waited as Dinesh grabbed a condom and put it on.

  
He pushed into Brian, who groaned and said, “Harder.” Dinesh thrust into him hard. He wondered if Brian had figured out he’d talked to Richard and was feeling guilty. Or maybe blowing him off had negged him. That was a thing, right? Whatever it was, Brian was being extremely sexy tonight. It was almost weird because he had no idea what was going on in Brian’s mind, but it also felt amazing.

  
As he kept fucking him hard, he asked, “You like that?”

  
“Uh-huh,” he said breathily. “I love your dick so much.”

  
Dinesh pushed deep into Brian and came. He jerked him off as he slowly pulled out. Brian moaned as he came.

  
Dinesh threw the condom out and then sat down on the bed. Brian wrapped his arms around Dinesh’s waist. “Get under the covers with me,” he murmured.

  
Dinesh had planned to be home before any of the other guys in the house woke up so he didn’t have to answer any questions. “Um, I should go,” he said.

  
“Seriously?” Brian asked, frowning. He immediately put on his best poker face and said, “Okay, that’s cool.”

  
Dinesh had a strong instinct to kiss Brian lovingly and then ask when he could see him again, but since he was trying to stop seeing Brian, he knew that wasn’t a good idea. “Bye,” he said.

  
“Later, dude,” Brian said, rolling his eyes. He knew it was partially his fault for not talking anything out with Dinesh, but he hadn’t expected him to just take off like that. He thought he had more time. He told himself there was no way Dinesh would actually be able to stay away from him. He’d come crawling back soon and then he could talk his way out of everything.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reconciliation following Nucleus' livestream.

As hard as it was, Dinesh actually managed to force himself to stay away. He kept telling himself he could do better than a complete doucheface anyway. Although, this attitude became harder and harder to maintain when he had absolutely no luck with other guys. A few guys on Tinder agreed to see him, but as soon as the possibility became real, Dinesh would re-evaluate and realize those guys were kind of gross.

  
The night everyone gathered around to watch Nucleus’ live stream of the fight, Dinesh was as excited as everyone else at Pied Piper about what a disaster it was. But, he also had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.  
After a minute of trying to fall asleep, he impulsively called Brian.

  
“Are you fucking serious?”

  
“Hi…” Dinesh said, frowning at the hostile greeting.

  
“After all this time, you decided to call to rub my failure in my face?”

  
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Dinesh said.

  
“Oh really? So, you’re not thrilled that Nucleus failed in a very epic, very public way?”

  
“I mean, I am,” he admitted. “But, not because of you. That’s why I called. To see if you’re okay.”

  
“I’m not okay. I’m embarrassed and terrified to go into work on Monday. Nucleus could be a notorious tech failure. There could be down-sizing and then not only will I be unemployed, but everyone will know that the last thing I worked on is Nucleus. I’m fucked.”

  
“Do you want me to come over?” Dinesh asked.

  
“What are you doing, Dinesh?” Brian asked. “What makes you think I want to see a guy whose last interaction with me was blowing off a date, then bootycalling me at 2 a.m.?”

  
“I wanted to keep dating you!” Dinesh said. “I just knew it would upset Richard and he’s one of my only friends. But, I haven’t stopped thinking about you. That’s why I offered to come over. Because if something like that had happened to me… You’re the person I would want to see. And I’m sure you moved on pretty easily, but this pathetic part of me was hoping that maybe that feeling went both ways.”

  
After a while, Brian said, “You can come over.”

  
Dinesh tip-toed out of the house, but was surprised to see Jared still awake and working on covering a bulletin board with Post-It notes about condor eggs. Dinesh immediately looked guilty when Jared saw him. Jared gave him a little smile and softly said, “I’m sure he could use some cheering up right now.”

  
Dinesh gave a little nod to acknowledge Jared’s weird understanding.

 

 

 

When Brian opened the door, Dinesh’s first thought was that he was even hotter than he’d remembered. His second thought was that he was completely unprepared to talk through any of the stuff between them.

  
After a minute, he said, “I’m still pathetically hung up on you even though we had one date ages ago, but we both saw your livestream, so… can we say they cancel out and neither of us has to be embarrassed?”

 

Brian nodded a little and led Dinesh inside. “Can we say that whatever the hell your late night bootycall power play the last time we saw each other was cancels out anything I’ve done to Richard?”

  
“I don’t know. How mean to him were you?” Dinesh asked.

  
Brian sighed. “I was an asshole, okay? Can you honestly tell me you never make fun of Richard?”

  
Dinesh knew that making fun of Richard was one of his biggest hobbies, but he also knew it was different when he did it. After a minute, he said, “We don’t have to talk about this. I really was hoping to make you feel better.”

  
Brian nodded and pulled Dinesh into a hug. Dinesh felt surprised and immediately tensed up, hoping he wouldn’t have to deal with too many emotions. “I’m a fucking wreck right now,” Brian told him.

  
When they were upstairs, Dinesh kicked his shoes off but didn’t take any other clothes off before getting in Brian’s bed. Brian got in next to him and started kissing him. After a while, he said, “I hope you weren’t thinking this would lead up to sex because not in the mood doesn’t begin to cover it.”

  
“I wasn't,” Dinesh assured him.

  
Brian gave him a little squeeze and kissed him some more. After a while, he pulled Dinesh close and silently held him.

  
“Hey, can I ask you something? Did someone at Hooli explicitly instruct you to reverse engineer Nucleus based on Richard’s algorithm?”

  
“Uh, yeah,” Brian said, narrowing his eyes since this was clearly not the time for Dinesh to once again bring up what a fraud he was.

  
“Well, then… you’re not going to get downsized,” Dinesh said. “I mean, think about it, Hooli is in the middle of a lawsuit and public embarrassment right now. The last thing they want is an extremely pissed of ex-employee who suddenly has nothing to lose and knows for a fact that everyone was told to rip Nucleus off from Pied Piper.”

  
Brian slowly smiled. “Holy shit.”

  
Dinesh smiled back, glad he could help. When he saw Brian’s face fall, he frowned. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  
“I wasn’t just worried about losing my job,” Brian said. “Look, I know Nucleus was just a joke to you guys and I know… I know even if I had cracked it, it would still just be a rip off of Richard’s idea and that’s, you know, really shitty. But, all that aside… I thought I’d be smart enough to figure it out. And I just wasn’t.” Brian teared up a little. “I wasn’t good enough.”

  
Dinesh had no idea what to do. “I wish I knew what to say,” he said softly. “I’m not great with feelings.”

  
Brian pulled him close and said, “I’m just glad you’re here.”

  
Dinesh nuzzled against Brian and softly said, “Yeah, of course.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SWOT Board!

Dinesh slipped out of Brian’s bed soon after he fell asleep. Brian stirred and sat up. He frowned at Dinesh.

  
“Hey, uh, I was just…”

  
“Leaving,” Brian finished. “Can’t you just tell Richard you spent the night at some other guy’s place?”

  
“I don’t know if anyone I live with would believe I got two different guys to sleep with me in the same calendar year,” Dinesh told him. He tried to read Brian’s expression and couldn’t tell if he was mad or not. He defensively said, “This isn’t like last time. I’m not sneaking out after sex, I’m sneaking out after coming over just to talk and snuggle. That has to count for something, right?”

  
“Dinesh, should I be worried that you’re in love with Richard?” Brian asked.

  
Dinesh stared at him. That was probably the last thing he’d expected Brian to accuse him of. “Um, no,” he said with a laugh. “Why would you even think that?”

  
“Well, at TechCrunch you kept rambling about being gay for some guy because of his amazing coding skills and then Richard had that game-changing algorithm, I kind of assumed he was your crush,” Brian said. “Which would be fine if you’d gotten over with, but now you’re sneaking around because you don’t want him to know you’re with me. Are you holding out hope you have a chance with him? Do you have a chance with him?”

  
“Brian, I have no interest in Richard,” Dinesh said, feeling kind of relieved that he in no way had to lie in this instance. “God, he could not be further from my type.”

  
“Really?” Brian asked skeptically.

  
“Yes. One, historically I’ve only been into dark hair. Two, I hate super-skinny guys. I don’t want to fuck a skeleton. Third, everyone I’m attracted to is kind of an asshole.”

  
Brian smiled a little and said, “So, I’m beating him all counts.”

  
“Definitely,” Dinesh assured him. He looked over Brian with surprise and asked, “Would you really care that much if I liked another guy? I mean, you’re the one who’s banging three dudes a week…”

  
“Well, I’m not serious about any guys I’m seeing right now,” Brian said. “And, yeah, I don’t know exactly how I feel about you yet, but I’m invested enough that I’d be kind of bummed if you were in love with a guy you live with.”

  
“I’m not at all into Richard, so…” Dinesh said.

  
“Do you really have to leave?” Brian asked. “I mean, you’re going to have to tell your friends eventually, if you want to keep seeing me, which… it sounds like you do?” he asked. “Right?”

  
Instead of actually answering the question, Dinesh defensively said, “You said you’re not sure how you feel about me yet, either. It’s not like I’m the only one who’s… you know.”

  
“Not sure if this relationship is a good idea,” Brian finished. He sighed and said, “Yeah.”

  
“I like a lot of aspects of it,” Dinesh said.

  
“Me too,” Brian said. “But, I also have a lot of concerns.”

  
Dinesh bit his lip and said, “Today Jared was rambling on about this thing called a SWOT board…”

 

Brian’s face lit up and said, “Yes! A SWOT board. I used them all the time.”

  
“Okay, you loving corporate shit is going under weaknesses,” Dinesh told him.

 

 

“Okay, the color patterns you choose to wear are definitely going under weaknesses,” Brian said, scribbling on a note card.

  
“Fine, then the fact that you wear Under Armour is going under weaknesses too,” Dinesh told him, also writing that down. “Your body is definitely a strength.”

  
Brian smirked and said, “But, the fact that you’d get to fuck it is an opportunity.”

  
“True,” Dinesh said. He frowned and said, “It’s also a threat.”

  
“Excuse me?” Brian asked.

  
“You being really hot. I’m gonna get used to being with a 10-- okay, well, an 8.5-- and then no guy I’m with after that will ever live up. That’s a threat.”

  
“You not wanting me to hang out with any of your friends is a weakness,” Brian said.

  
Dinesh wrinkled his nose and said, “And the thought that you might actually want me to hang out with your friends is a threat.” After a second, he looked around and said, “Oh! Spending time at your house is definitely an opportunity.”

  
“You not being on Instagram is a weakness because there’s so many adorable couples Instagram things we’d be missing out on,” Brian said.

  
“You Instagramming your meals is a weakness. So, is you listening to Dave Matthews Band. And, ugh, the fact that you own every Fast & Furious movie on Blu-ray. Oh and that Fight Club poster in your living room.”

  
“Okay, well, the fact that you’re a huge snob is a weakness,” Brian said. “The fact that you hate all work-out based activities is a weakness. You’re missing out on so many fun things.”

  
“You thinking working out is fun is a threat,” Dinesh said.

  
Brian smiled at Dinesh affectionately and said, “You know, this is just going to end up being like that Friends episode where Ross lists the pros and cons of Rachel and the other girl, but then at the end he realizes that the only con that matters is that the other girl isn’t Rachel.”

  
Dinesh wrinkled his nose and said, “References Friends. That’s a weakness.”

  
Brian put his hand under Dinesh’s chin and said, “Seriously. Strength: being around you makes me happy. Strength: I love talking to you even when we’re fighting. Strength: no one’s made me feel this nervous and happy and excited in a really long time.”

  
Dinesh started kissing him lovingly. After a minute, he pinned Brian’s hands down. He grinned and said, “Strength: It’s super-hot when you let me pin you down.”

  
Brian grinned. “I’d agree with that. Be my boyfriend.”

  
“I think the idea is to finish coming up with every possible strength, weakness, opportunity and threat and then really take a look at it all,” Dinesh murmured nervously.

  
“Babe,” Brian said. “Come on. Do you want to be my boyfriend or not?”

  
Dinesh felt pretty scared by this whole situation. Not only would it be entering a real relationship for the first time in his life, but it was with someone who made him really nervous. But, when he looked down at Brian, he knew exactly what the answer to his question was. “I want to,” he said.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinesh tells the guys about Brian.

“I have an idea,” Brian said as he pulled his pants on.

 

“If it involves us having sex again, just give me a moment,” Dinesh said as he dried off from their shower.

 

Brian laughed and said, “That’s not what I was going to say, but I love your enthusiasm.” He pulled a shirt out of his dresser.

 

“Please don’t wear that one. It’s terrible,” Dinesh said, snatching it out of his hands. He started looking through Brian’s dresser for a different shirt.

 

“You can’t pick my clothes all the time, dude,” he said.

 

“Why not?” Dinesh asked, handing him one. “I like about 60% of the stuff you own. That’s not too bad a pool to choose from.”

 

“You know, I hate absolutely every piece of clothing I’ve ever seen you in. You have, like, one tolerable sweater and that’s it,” Brian said as he started putting on the shirt Dinesh had picked.

 

“If I have one that’s tolerable, then you don’t hate all of them. You should work on using precise language,” Dinesh told him.

 

“I should work on that?” Brian repeated.

 

Dinesh saw Brian looked upset, so he kissed him before buttoning the shirt up to him. “I like you so much. Don’t be mad at me.”

 

“I’m not,” Brian assured him. “But, don’t you think it’s a little unfair for me to just quietly put up with the way you dress, but you’re always making me change?”

 

“In theory yes, but in practice it seems like you’re a lot more open to suggestions, so…” He shrugged. “Besides, it’s not like I’m asking you to buy all new clothes. Just wear stuff from the 60% of your wardrobe that I actually like.”

 

“Okay, whatever makes you happy,” Brian said. He shook his head a little but he was smiling. He had to admire Dinesh’s imperviousness to criticism about his wardrobe. “Anyway, I was thinking if you want, I could come inside when I drop you off and apologize to Richard for being a dick and tell them I’m your boyfriend now.” He petted Dinesh’s hair affectionately and said, “I could do all the talking for you.”

 

“That’s sweet,” Dinesh said. “I feel like it’d be a total pussy move to not tell them myself though.” After a second, he said, “But, actually, the idea of you doing all the talking sounds incredible.”

 

Brian kissed him and said, “I got your back, babe.”

 

“God, you’re sexy,” Dinesh said, squeezing Brian’s hands.

 

“Sexy enough to wear whatever I want?” Brian asked.

 

“You could, but why change anything when right now you’re perfect?”

 

 

 

 

 

“God, I don’t want to do this,” Dinesh murmured.

 

“It’s gonna be okay,” Brian assured him. When Dinesh didn’t open the door of the house, Brian pushed it open and led Dinesh inside.

 

“Intruder!” Erlich said. “Jared, flip that bulletin board. Don’t let this guy get a glimpse of our work.”

 

Brian covered his eyes since everyone was being paranoid and since, if he was being honest, it would be hard to resist the temptation to rip off anything he did get a glimpse of.

 

“You may look now, you fucking asshole,” Erlich said.

 

Brian lowered his hand and said, “Richard, I wanted to tell you how sorry I am that I was mean to you when you worked at Hooli. But, I like Dinesh a lot and he’s my boyfriend now, so I hope you’ll forgive me enough to at last tolerate me.”

 

Richard felt all the eyes on him. He didn’t know what to say so he murmured, “Yeah. I mean, I’m happy for you, Dinesh, man.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at Brian.

 

“Thanks, man,” Brian said. He gave Jared a little nod and said, “Sup, Jared?”

 

Jared cleared his throat. “Not much. What’s up with you, Brian?” he asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

 

“Ever since you left Hooli, you never come to the ultimate frisbee games on Saturdays. We miss you,” Brian said.

 

Jared felt Richard’s eyes on him as he looked at the floor. “Maybe some time I’ll stop by.”

 

Brian held his hand out to Gilfoyle and said, “I didn’t catch your name.”

 

“Yeah,” Gilfoyle said before heading towards his room. He turned back to Dinesh and said, “He’s very physically attractive, so… good job on that.”

 

“Okay,” Brian said. He turned to Erlich and put his hand out, “And you are?”

 

“Erlich Bachman, but I’m not going to shake your hand.” Erlich started to leave since it had seemed like a cool move when Gilfoyle did it. He stopped and turned back to say, “It’s not a homophobic thing. Is that clear?”

 

“Uh, yeah,” Brian said, furrowing his eyebrows.

 

“What you do with Dinesh is your personal business, but my business is protecting Richard’s business which is currently getting fucked over by your business.”

 

“Speaking of which, Dinesh, we need you to work on this live stream, so if you’re done… just, you know, we need you to work.”

 

“Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you. I’ll go,” Brian said. He kissed Dinesh and then asked, “Wait, live stream? You guys are doing your own live stream?”

 

“We hadn’t been planning on it, but we thought with the whole… you know… failure. This would be a good time for us to do one.”

 

“Cool,” Brian murmured. “Well, cool, I hope it turns out great. Bye, babe.”

 

 

 

Brian picked Dinesh up for dinner a couple weeks later.

 

“Hey, sorry I haven’t seen you in so long,” Dinesh said as he got in Brian’s car. “Work’s been crazy.”

 

“Yeah, I saw the condor live stream,” Brian said.

 

Dinesh cringed with embarrassment and said, “It wasn’t supposed to be just a live stream of a condor. That was… something fell through.”

 

“Well, anyway, the live stream quality itself is fucking amazing,” Brian said.

 

“I know,” Dinesh agreed.

 

“And the team is just the five of you?”

 

“Well, Jared and Erlich don’t write code they’re just there to… tell us how to be adults and to yell at people, respectively. There’s a couple other coders we just hired, but yeah I’m in charge of most of the… Should you be watching the road more?” Dinesh asked. “You’re kind of staring at me in a really scary way.”

 

“Sorry,” Brian said, forcing himself to look away from Dinesh. “I’ve never dated someone I was in direct competition with before.”

 

“Oh,” Dinesh said. It took him a while to figure out why Jason seemed so upset and then he said, “Oh, yes. I can see how it must be difficult that I’m so much better than you.”

 

“Jesus, Dinesh,” Brian said softly.

 

“I meant at this one thing! Not in general. I wouldn’t say I’m better than you as just a blanket statement.”

 

“That ‘one thing’ is my entire career. You understand that, right? I went to college for this and have been working at it my entire life.”

 

“I don’t know what to say. I thought we were going to dinner with your friend and you’re sort of blind siding me bringing up the fact that my live stream was better than yours. I mean, I thought you already understood that Pied Piper is better.” Since he didn’t want to sound unsympathetic, he added, “I know it sucks. I just don’t know what I can do about it.”

 

“I don’t either,” Brian said. “I’m sorry I brought it up and then lashed out at you. It’s just really frustrating.”

 

After a while, Dinesh said, “So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a little-- um-- so, I don’t work out as much as you do and I think that might be apparent to a degree.”

 

Brian made a noncommittal noise.

 

“So, I feel a little bad when I take my shirt off and you also have your shirt off. That’s kind of a thing,” Dinesh said. He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if this was helping.

 

Brian nodded a little. “I get how it’s similar, but… you’re basically saying that you have actual skills and value, whereas I’m just really hot.”

 

“That’s extremely valuable in our society. I could argue persuasively that most people value conventional attractiveness above all else, whether they realize it or not,” Dinesh told him.

 

“That still doesn’t really make me feel like I’ve won, I mean I’m still incredibly attracted to you, so….” Brian shrugged.

 

“Yeah, and I love talking to you because you’re an engaging, intelligent human being regardless of how objectively better at coding I am,” Dinesh said.

 

“Okay, that makes me feel better,” Brian said.

 

“Really? Because I felt like I was completely blowing this conversation,” Dinesh said.

 

Brian laughed. He parked as he said, “No. You always make me feel better. I guess I just need to remember there’s no need to compare myself to you.” He kissed Dinesh lovingly.

 

“Yeah,” Dinesh said, deciding not to bring up that they were in direct competition since it would just upset Brian again. “Let’s go. Your friend is waiting.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian introduces Dinesh to Aly, then smut happens.

Brian held Dinesh’s hand as they walked into the restaurant but let go of it without realizing it when he spotted Aly. He led Dinesh over to the table where Aly was waiting.

“Hey, bro,” Brian said. “This is Dinesh.”

“Yeah, I remember from TechCrunch,” Aly said. He smirked and said, “You look the same. Red pants and all.” 

“Uh, hi,” Dinesh said, feeling like Aly was acting weird even by bro standards. “I don’t remember you. Sorry.”

Aly shrugged and said. “No worries. It’s great to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about how cool you are.” 

Dinesh frowned, suspecting he was being made fun of.

“Hey, so, uh,” Brian said, “You know what you guys have in common? You both love Harry Potter.” 

“Wow, we both love one of the most successful franchises of all time. That’s fascinating, Brian,” Dinesh said, rolling his eyes.

Brian sighed. His best friend and his boyfriend were both looking at him, totally annoyed, and he had no idea how to make them get along. 

“So, you play any sports, Dinesh?” Aly asked, smirking since he already knew the answer.

“Uh, no,” Dinesh said. “So, don’t you dare invite me to your ultimate frisbee games.” 

“I wasn’t going to,” Aly said, glaring at him.

Brian tightened his jaw, wishing either of them would at least try to be nice.

Dinesh raised an eyebrow at Aly and said, “Yeah, I’m sure you have real strict standards for who you invite. I mean, if Jared is involved…” 

“Oh, right, you work with Jared now,” Aly said. “For the record, we had to invite him to our games because he heard about them and he was our boss. It’s not like we could just tell him to his face he’s a weird nerd.” 

“Why not? I do it all the time,” Dinesh told him. “Just today I said he looks like the BFG had a baby with some undercooked spaghetti.”

Aly laughed hard. “Oh my God, he totally does,” he said. “Also he’s so thin and pale and hunchy, he looks like a straw.” 

Dinesh laughed. “Holy shit. That’s a good one. I have to tell him that,” he said. “So, you guys have watched him try to play sports? That must be depressing.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Aly said happily. “You have to see him run. It’s like…” Aly flopped his arms around, impersonating Jared’s running mannerisms. Brian laughed and also impersonated Jared. He was excited to see how well Dinesh and Aly were getting along.

“Remember when he threw the frisbee so badly it literally went behind him?” he asked.

“Yes!” Aly said. “And there was no wind or anything. It was all Jared.” 

They all laughed and Brian squeezed Dinseh’s knee under the table.

 

 

“That was fun, right?” Brian asked as he and Dinesh got in bed.

“I guess, as far as going and meeting new people goes,” Dinesh said. He wrapped his arms around Brian and said, “I’m still happy to be alone with you again.” 

Brian laughed. “Hey, you know what would be really fun, babe?” He kissed down Dinesh’s neck.

“Hm?” Dinesh asked, humming a little at the feeling.

“If you sucked some dick,” Brian told him. When he saw Dinesh’s face, he said, “Oh, come on, you have had it way too good for too long in this relationship. I’ve blown you so much.”

“And you’re so good at it!” Dinesh said. “Way better than I would be. Maybe we should just stick to our wheelhouses.”

Brian rolled his eyes and said, “That’s the argument you’re going with?” 

Dinesh looked down with embarrassment and said, “Seriously. I don’t want you to get annoyed by how bad I am at it.” 

“Babe, it’s okay, I don’t expect you to be an expert,” Brian said. 

“I’m going to be so bad, you’ll regret being with me,” Dinesh told him. “I mean, be honest, when was the last time you got head from a guy who hadn’t done it before?” 

Brian thought about it and said, “I guess… probably not since the first guy I was with.” 

“So, like, college?” Dinesh asked curiously. He frowned when Brian didn’t answer right away and asked, “Not… not high school?” Whenever he heard about someone getting laid in high school, it was hard for him to wrap his mind around just how different this was from his experience. 

“Yeah, high school,” he said. “I was like 16.” 

“You beat me at getting laid by, like, half our lives,” Dinesh said.

“It’s not a competition,” Brian said.

“Said the guy who got laid in high school. Who was he, anyway?” 

“Who was the guy I was with in high school?” Brian asked, furrowing his eyebrows at the question.

“Yeah, what was he like? Was he hot?” Dinesh asked.

“Why, do you want his number?” Brian asked, crossing his arms and wondering why Dinesh was acting like this.

Dinesh sighed and said, “Seriously. I just… I can’t imagine what it could’ve been like to actually be with a guy romantically as a tenager. This is such a fundamental difference between us and I just want to try to understand it. So… what was he like?” 

Brian pulled Dinesh close, deciding it was actually pretty cute that he cared. “Um, his name was Dylan Saunders. We met at Gifted Camp.”

“Gifted Camp? What the hell is that? It sounds like something out of The Hunger Games,” Dinesh said.

“It’s a summer camp for kids with high I.Q.’s. There’s normal stuff like a volleyball tournament and a big dance, but there’s also, like, classes in Shakespeare and forensics.” 

“Okay, nothing about American high schools sounds real to me, but go on,” Dinesh said.

“We hung out in computer lab together all the time and decided to go to the end of summer dance together. So, just imagine two awkward gay boys who have no idea what to say to each other, silently dancing to Ginuwine, both with giant erections, while counselors occasionally walk by and tell them to leave room for the holy spirit in between them.” 

“Oh my God,” Dinesh said. “So, did you hook up at camp?” 

“No, he ended up actually transferring to my school in the fall,” Brian said. “So, I said we could hook up on the regular as long as he didn’t tell anyone.”

“Wait, why could he not tell anyone? I thought you said people knew you were gay in high school,” Dinesh said.

“Well, yeah, they knew I was gay, but come on, he was a total nerd,” Brian said. “It was embarrassing. I mean, he hung out in the computer lab at Gifted Camp.” 

“So did you,” Dinesh reminded him.

“I’m an exception,” Brian said with a shrug.

“So, just because you’re smart and cool, you get to shit all over everyone’s feelings?” Dinesh asked.

“I really doubt he cared that much. He got to have sex with me,” Brian reminded him.

“Got to? You say that like it was this big honor for him and he should be so grateful,” Dinesh said. 

“Dude, why are you defending Dylan Saunders so aggressively?” Brian asked.

“Because now I am him!” Dinesh said, surprised Brian didn’t see how obvious that was.

“...what?” 

“I’m the embarrassing nerd from computer lab who you think you’re too cool for,” Dinesh said. 

“I’m not embarrassed by you,” Brian said. “I just introduced you to my best friend, if you didn’t notice. I was excited to do it, too.”

“That’s true…” Dinesh admitted.

“In fact, you were the one who was embarrassed to introduce me to your friends,” Brian reminded him. “So embarrassed, I might add, that you blew off a date with me and decided to fuck and run instead. And I still asked you to be my boyfriend as soon as you bothered to call me and I had to convince you.” He cringed a little when he laid it all out like that. 

“Sorry?” Dinesh asked.

“I’m not trying to make you feel bad. That shit is behind us, I’m just saying…” Brian stared at him and asked, “How do you not realize that I am completely head over heels for you?”

“You are?” Dinesh asked.

“Dude, I’ve fallen so hard,” Brian said. “This is the most whipped I’ve ever been. By far. It’s embarrassing.” 

Dinesh grinned. “You’re whipped? Someone is whipped by me? And that someone looks like you?” 

Brian laughed and kissed him. “Just imagine how much more whipped I’d be if you sucked my dick,” he said in Dinesh’s ear. 

Dinesh bit his lip and nodded a little. “I do want to try that,” he said. “Just please don’t laugh at me for being terrible.” 

“I won’t, babe,” Brian said as he started taking his clothes off.

When Brian was ready, Dinesh started taking his dick in his mouth. He lifted his head and said, “That felt weird. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Brian said. “You don’t have to go so fast, okay? You should ease into it.”

Dinesh nodded.

“You want to try again? Are you okay?” Brian asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dinesh said. He leaned down again and started sucking on the tip.

“That’s really good, baby,” Brian told him. “As soon as you're comfortable just start taking a little more at a time. Oh, and watch your teeth, okay?” 

Dinesh started gradually taking more in his mouth. He felt worried about how slowly he was going, but Brian petted his hair and reassuringly said, “You’re doing so well. Try using your tongue if you can.”

Dinesh flicked his tongue over the tip and Brian moaned, tugging on his hair. “Fuck, that’s good,” he said.

When Dinesh had most of it in his mouth, he started bobbing his head as fast and hard as he could.

“That’s so great,” Brian said. “Fuck, you’re really good at that. Keep using your tongue.”

Dinesh kept trying to lick it as much as possible while bobbing his head. It felt a little awkward but he was also enjoying it. 

After a while, Brian said, “Oh my God, babe, I’m gonna come.” Dinesh decided he’d be cool and try to swallow it, but Brian pushed his head up as he came. “You don’t have to be that advanced for me yet,” he told Dinesh. “That was great.”

Dinesh beamed proudly and then said, “I want to fuck you now.” He started undressing as Brian rolled over. 

Dinesh put on a condom and rubbed lubricant on Brian’s asshole. “You’re so incredibly hot,” he told him.

Brian smiled and looked over his shoulder. “So, are you, babe,” he said.

Dinesh moaned as he pushed into him. Brian rocked his hips back hard. 

“I love your dick so much, Dinesh,” Brian said breathily.

“Yeah?” Dinesh asked, pushing deep into him.

“Oh yeah,” Brian said. “Fuck, it feels so good.” 

Dinesh pushed back and forth. He moaned as he came. 

As Dinesh was throwing the condom out, he asked, “Hey, remember when you told me you’re usually a top? Is that true?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Brian said, rolling onto his back and stretching out. “I hadn’t really bottomed since high school except for a few times when I was really drunk.” 

Dinesh got in bed next to him and said, “Well, that was a waste of great ass. Speaking of which, you should roll over.” 

Brian smiled at him, rolling onto his stomach and snuggling up to him. Dinesh pulled him close and rested his hand on Brian’s ass. 

“I’m pretty fucking lucky that you’re my boyfriend,” he said softly.

“No,” Brian said, nuzzling against him. “I am.”


End file.
